Significant research and development efforts are currently being applied to the development of nanoscale electronic circuitry for use in computers, computer memories, and other electronic and microelectronic devices. Research is currently being undertaken to economically and reliably produce nanoscale devices based on nanowires and nanowire crossbars with different types of molecular junctions that provide different types of electrical functionalities analogous to well-known microscale and macroscale electronics components, including resistive molecular junctions, diode-like molecular junctions, switch molecular junctions, and other components analogous to standard electronics components. Nanowire-based and nanowire-crossbar-based electronics are extremely attractive for computer manufacturers and other electronic device manufacturers, because they provide higher-density circuitry without the extremely expensive approach of scaling photolithographic methods down to nanoscale dimensions. Nanoscale electronics have additional advantages, including relatively low power consumption and low operating voltages.
A number of useful nanoscale electronic circuits have been developed, and working nanoscale electronic devices are currently being prototyped. In such devices, layers of nanoelectronic circuitry need to interface with one another and with layers of traditional microelectronic circuitry by which discrete components are interconnected. A great challenge in building and manufacturing interfaces between nanoscale circuits and other circuits, including other nanoscale circuits, other sub-microscale circuits, and other microscale circuits involves alignment of nanoscale circuits to each other and to other types of circuits. Designers, developers, and manufacturers of nanoelectronic-circuit-containing devices have recognized that alignment of nanoscale elements may be an intrinsically difficult problem, and have recognized the need for manufacturing techniques and device designs that at least partially circumvent and/or address these alignment problems.